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How Does a Twitter Hashtag Hype a COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory?
- 1 Zhejiang University City College, Hangzhou, 310015, China
- 2 Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School, Shanghai, 201108, China
- 3 University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
- 4 University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton. SO17 1BJ, UK
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
We analyzed the trend of high frequency words under a Twitter hashtag #5G: Coronavirus as well as the sentiments behind based on the collected 3,136 tweets which filled the gap in studies concerning how conspiracy spread. Figuring out the mechanism, we found the contexts driven by the conspiracy appear to be negative as a whole, and new topics overflow into the unsolved tangle, by which we propose two succinct solutions to tackle the issue: explain the obscure events ASAP and avoid direct engagement with conspiracy theory discourse
Keywords
Covid-19, conspiracy theory, social media, hashtag
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Cite this article
Xiong,J.;Wang,Y.;Zhao,L.;Li,J. (2023). How Does a Twitter Hashtag Hype a COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory?. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,4,49-59.
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Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 3
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